Body identified as missing Burlington woman

The skeletal remains found by a hunter last week in woods off of Union Ridge Road are those of a Burlington woman missing since April.

A DNA profile created from samples provided by the family of 43-year-old Debra “Dianne” Sellars is what authorities used to identify her remains.

Burlington police have been looking for Sellars since she was reported missing by her family on April 24. Sellars was last seen at her Beaumont Avenue home on April 20.

“Our investigation leads us to believe this is a homicide,” said Burlington police Capt. Steve Smith.

Someone hunting in the woods off the 4200 block of Union Ridge Road found the remains at about 6 p.m. Oct. 3 and called the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office because the remains were found in the county. The sheriff’s office immediately called the Burlington Police Department, knowing the agency was still searching for Sellars.

The two agencies are continuing to work together on this case, Smith said.

“We are going to work with them,” Smith said. “We’ve done a lot of work on this case and will continue to do that work until we resolve who may have killed Debra Sellars.”

When the skeletal remains were recovered, they were sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Chapel Hill. A medical examiner was able to identify that the remains were those of a black woman, but dental records or DNA was necessary to make an identification.

Authorities were unable to find Sellars’ dental records or anything in her home that they knew with 100 percent certainty contained her DNA. That’s why LabCorp built the DNA profile using samples provided by Sellars’ family.

The remains are now at N.C. State University so they can be examined by an anthropologist who might be able to provide information about the cause of death.

On that afternoon Sellars disappeared, she told her son that she was going out and would be back before he needed the 2000 Ford Windstar van they shared. Sellars never returned home. Police have found her van and collected evidence from it.

Last month, a crew from a cable TV program “Find Our Missing” interviewed detectives working the missing person’s case as well as Sellars’ family members for a documentary-drama that will air on TV One in the first quarter of 2013. At the time, the Times-News was told that the show would air even if Sellars was found.

Police are still seeking assistance from the public. CrimeStoppers pays up to $2,500 and the governor’s office is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of one or more people responsible for Sellars’ death.

Anyone with information about Sellars’ death can contact Burlington Police Department at 336-229-3500 or CrimeStoppers at 336-229-7100.